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Battle
The primary gameplay and difficulty; the engine which powers the enjoyment of Loveless. The player enters this from the field, typically due to encountering demons there. They get an overview of the enemies they will fight in this battle, and decide which demons from their own party they'll bring into battle, plus their player character, depending on the player's discretion of which demons would be the best fit for victory. The goal of combat is to eliminate the enemy team. Every turn, the player picks one of their demons to both position and use a move, such as an attack or psychic powers; different moves have different costs and conditions, such as requiring an enemy or ally be within a certain range. After the player's turn, the enemy will position and use a move with one demon; the battle cycle continues back and forth in this way. Once all enemy combatants have either died, changed sides, or given up, the battle is won. Once the player character is killed, the battle is lost. The player may also retreat, and live another day. The Battlefield Every battle occurs in an area called the battlefield, a 9x9 tiled board; each tile allots enough space for one demon, and a demon must exist on one of these tiles to be considered active (a demon may move off the battlefield to retreat.) The player may select up to 14 demons to bring into battle, not including their avatar, resulting in 15 total units at your command. Demons can move a number of tiles in every direction, depending on how many spaces they're allowed to move at once; a diagonal motion counts as two spaces. Demons may not pass through one another, neither allies nor enemies, with two exceptions: a demon that can fly may pass over other demons, and a demon that has the elemental type "phantom" may pass through other demons. Terrain Every tile on the board has a particular kind of terrain associated with it, which may impart various different effects, also depending on the traits of the demon. * Neutral, Wasteland, Grassland ** No effects * Water ** Counts as two spaces, unless the demon can swim. Adds drench charges. * Desert ** Counts as two spaces, unless the demon can endure. Removes drench charges. * Sky ** Counts as two spaces, unless the demon can fly. * Lava ** Counts as two spaces. Adds aflame charges. * Oil ** Counts as two spaces. Adds oil charges. * Heartgrass ** Restores hearts every turn. * Soulstream ** Restores willpower every turn. The Demons The bread and butter of battles; demons are the vehicle for conquest in an encounter, serving two primary purposes: first, to protect your avatar and their leader, for if you die, then the battle is lost and you inch closer to a game over; second, as your only method of defeating the enemy team. Health Demons have two health pools: their hearts, and their willpower. They are each expended to use moves, and they are each necessary to keep the demon alive and well. While demons do heal every turn based on their sensing and intuition (for hearts and willpower respectively), some demons are designed with support in mind, and should be utilized to keep the other demons alive. Hearts are expended to use physical moves, which then damage an enemy's hearts; likewise, willpower is expended to use psychic moves, which then damage an enemy's willpower. So, beefy warrior demons can easily take out frail psychic demons, and vice versa. Broken Once a demon's hearts or willpower hits zero, they enter the broken state; this will cause the demon to drain their remaining health every turn until death, so long as this demon remains in battle; by retreating (moving outside of the battlefield), the demon may be spared of death, but will not be available for the rest of the battle. The health bar that was drained cannot be healed, but the health bar that is still being drained can still be restored. However, all damage the demon takes for their drained health bar will result in 1.5x more damage, applied to their remaining health; e.g., a demon that lost all their hearts will take 1.5x damage to their willpower if hit with a physical attack. So, while a demon can still function while in the broken state, it is a good idea to remove them from battle if you don't want to lose them forever. Positioning Where your demon sits in battle is of extreme importance: for example, a demon which is designed to take the brunt of damage should not hide behind a demon which is intended to attack from afar, and a demon which is designed to be a frail but powerful healer should not be leading the charge against a wall of warriors. Demons need to constantly reposition to ensure that their individual strengths and weaknesses are exploited: it may be necessary to push a demon forward to get them in range of their moves, and it may be necessary to push a demon back to get them out of danger's way. Other times, it may be desirable to not change their location, e.g. to block the path of an enemy, where a move can then be used in place. A demon may only move up to a maximum of spaces, defined by their agility; typically, they can move between 2 - 5 spaces (i.e. 5 agility = 5 spaces), though some demons can move more, and other unusual demons are stationary. Generally speaking, the larger and bulkier a demon is, the lower their agility will be; the smaller, frailer demons will have higher agility. An incentive to not metamorphose some of your demons is to ensure their agility stays high. Moves Once a demon has been positioned, the player can elect to use a move; every demon has a different set of moves they may have at their disposal, and they're tailored for that demon's particular intended role in battle--though of course, the player may modify this to some degree. Every move costs a certain amount of hearts or willpower, as a matter of percentage; generally, the more health that is drained to perform a move, the stronger, more versatile, or impeding that move will be: greater risk, greater reward. Using a move that would eat more health than a demon has can break or kill them, but is a valid tactic as a maneuver of last resort. If no move is used, the demon automatically enters a defensive state, and will take less damage from any ensuing attacks. Demon Parties Demons in your party may have party members themselves, up to 4. Every demon in a demon's party contributes to that demon's move list. When a move is used that stems from a demon's party, rather than the demon themselves, then it uses the stats of the demon who owns this move rather than the commanding demon's. This adds a great deal of versatility to what a demon can do in battle. If a demon leader takes damage, their party members take damage instead; likewise, when the demon leader is healed, their party is healed instead. So not only do party members contribute to a demon's total move pool, but they also defend their leader from harm, allowing you to protect your best demons even further with lower-ranking demons. Legions A demon's demon's demons can have demons; past the demon's immediate party, all further demons are considered to be legions, and are represented only by a number. Legions act as a 3rd ring of defense for a demon; each legionnaire counts as 1 point of health, and have no type or defenses, so they take the full brunt of any damage dealt to the demon, but ignore all elemental strengths and weaknesses. Each legionnaire has an upkeep, and so it depends on your soul income to keep them around, thus you will only really have access to them after gathering lots of strong demons, making them a mid-to-late-game component. Nonetheless, they become very important when taking on opposing kingdoms, who will inevitably have lots of legions at their disposal. Contracting Demons I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse. - Don Corleone Any demon on the enemy team which is not already soulbound to another demon may be offered a soulbond, which adds that demon to your company to be used in battle; this is performed by selecting the enemy demon on your turn, which will bring up a selection option for "Soulbind"; from there, you select what bonus souls you will offer, and what rate you will contract this demon at. The demon will mull over this contract, using the following conditions to determine whether they find this contract favorable: * The demon is alone ** The player should try to eliminate the demon's allies before offering a contract; the less support the demon has, the more willing they will be to accept your offer. However, it is possible to offer a demon a contract while other enemy demons are in the battlefield, which turns the contracted demon against them if successful. * The demon is broken ** The player should bring the demon close to a state of death; this proves to the demon that you are the stronger being, and that you will be able to get results if the demon is to follow your command. * The demon is a lower level than the player character ** The player should assert dominance over the demon to ensure the demon understands who is in charge; by being naturally better overall, the demon will be more awestruck by you, and thus more willing to serve. * The bonus is high ** The player should grease the demon's palms with a large number of souls; demons love souls, and love them in large quantities. * The rate is high ** The player should offer a favorable rate to the demon so that it will continue to receive souls in every battle it participates with you; the more souls it gets, the happier it will be. Not all of these conditions need to be met for a contract to be successfully accepted, but a combination of them is typically a good idea if you want security. If a demon refuses a contract, any bonus souls attached to the soulbond become shattered and lost, and a new contract must be rewritten, so try to make the best offer you can without offering too much that you'll regret it if it doesn't work out, or you're overpaying for a demon (though keep in mind, high bonuses and rates will improve that demon's loyalty towards you much faster, while poor bonuses and rates may cause it to fall.) Rewards Once a battle is successful, the player is rewarded with the souls of their fallen enemies, as well as accumulated experience points, leading to level-ups. Experience When a demon performs a move in battle, they gain XP relative to their IQ; at 100 IQ, they gain 10 XP, and at 200 IQ, they gain 20 XP. Other demons on your team and in battle will also gain XP from having observed this move, gaining 5 XP at 100 IQ, and 10 at 200 IQ. Once a demon accumulates 100 XP, they gain a level, and become stronger. XP is only acquired after the battle is over (it is assumed the demons reflect on their experience only once the danger is gone.) Souls Every demon killed in battle gives you souls. Any demon that ran away in battle gives you half of the souls they would've given you if killed. Generally, the higher the demon's level, the more party members the demon had, and the more legionnaires they had, the more souls they'll relinquish upon death. Souls act as the currency of Hell, and every demon wants them, so the more souls you have, the more leverage you'll have to grow your demon army. However, because all demons in your party have contracts (besides yourself), you must pay dividends to every demon that you took with you in battle, based on their individual contracts. So, if you don't want to lose too many souls from a battle, limit the number of demons you take with you!--demons that don't participate in battle don't get paid (though they do get a little unhappy over time.) Any remaining souls after dividends are paid go to your coffers. Demons Any demon that was contracted during battle is now available for you to command. Drops Any items that the enemies might've dropped are collected and added to your inventory. Game Over If the player character dies in battle, the battle is over immediately--even if all their other allies are still alive, or dead. The player's soul is (inevitably) transported to Limbo, where they must try to escape from to continue to progress. In this sense, the player acts as a kind of King, where they must be protected at all costs. However, because the player also needs to constantly increase their power to continue building a strong military, they must also put themselves in harm's way to some degree (or at least act as support for their demons.) Compounding on this issue is the fact that the player character cannot escape from battle until all of their other demons have escaped battle; since the player can only move one demon at a time, this can easily lead to death if they brought a very large number of demons with them (since it'd be too slow to move all 14 of them out of combat before yourself, as the enemy will effectively get 14 free turns on you--not a good situation to be in.)